


Forever Home

by shatteredcrystalwings



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: !!!!!, Alternate Universe - Happy Ending, Cats, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, we're just ignoring the last chapter it didn't happen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-16 20:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16502012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shatteredcrystalwings/pseuds/shatteredcrystalwings
Summary: Ash and Eiji adopt a catVery very minor spoilers for the manga's ending





	Forever Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is purely self-indulgent fluff, please enjoy

Sunlight beat down hot on the cement as the last dregs of summer held fast in the city, a crisp wind and the yellow and orange leaves the only indication of the actual time of year. Clutching his sweater’s collar against a breeze that threatened to slither down it, Ash allowed Eiji to pull him by the hand towards the large brick building that served as their destination. 

“Do you think we should get a black one? They’re supposed to be bad luck, but they’re so cute. Just two little eyes looking out at you like susuwatari!” he rambled excitedly.

“Susu-what?” Ash’s expression held a sardonic smile. Much as he enjoyed seeing Eiji like this, he had… reservations the reason behind it. 

“The black puffy things in  _ Totoro _ , remember? We watched it a few months ago.” 

Ash hummed in vague recollection as he stepped in front of Eiji to open the door for him. “Was that the one with the boy who turned into a dragon?” he asked with the hint of a smirk.

“No, that was- Oh, they were in that one too. Whatever, you get the idea,” Eiji waved dismissively, walking into the entryway that smelled like a mixture of soap and cat litter. “You didn’t say what you thought about getting a black one.”

“Shouldn’t we see them before you start making decisions?” Ash asked, looking at Eiji as they approached the reception desk. The woman who sat behind it wore a loose shirt covered in tiny cartoon dogs, her hair tied up in a messy bun as the computer screen she was looking at reflected off her glasses. “Hello,” he greeted casually, apparently catching her off guard and causing her to jump. Not without good reason, based off what exactly her could see in her glasses.

“Can I help you?” she asked, closing the browser window as she glanced between the two boys with a slight blush colouring her cheeks. Her eyes lingered on Ash longer than was strictly necessary and he inwardly huffed in annoyance. 

“We were interested in possibly adopting a cat?”

“Oh, wonderful! The cats are over to the right,” she said, standing slightly to point. “Just past the dogs. Do you want me to come with you?” Once again, her eyes lingered on him.

Eiji, however, was the one who replied. “No, we’re okay, thank you!” he said with a smile, taking Ash by the hand and pulling him away quickly.

He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “Eager to get me alone, are you?” 

Eiji didn’t say anything in response to the quip, but his expression hardened, a small pout on his lips. He wasn’t the jealous type, per se, but they had spoken before about how it bothered him when others looked at Ash in a way that wasn’t strictly platonic. “I don’t like feeling like that’s all people see in you,” he had explained once, and Ash couldn’t help but empathize. He had spent so long being viewed by everyone around him as either a threat or a sex object that he had started feeling like maybe that was all there was to him: danger and pleasure, wrapped up into a neat little package of flesh and blood.

After so many years of that, it had been Eiji who first looked at him differently. 

Ash squeezed the hand that was still in his, only to jump back in terror a moment later as a rottweiler came careening towards him out of the corner of his eye. “JESUS FUCKING-” 

A chorus of giggles mixed with the loud barking that seemed to surround him. “It’s behind glass, Ash, it can’t get you!” Eiji laughed. “I thought it was just pumpkins you were afraid of.” 

“Giant fucking police dogs coming at you are a perfectly logical thing to be wary of,” he huffed, letting down his hackles and righting his glasses that had fallen askew from the sudden burst of motion. He felt heat colour his face as he realized a few people down the hall were laughing as well. “Do you know how much it hurts to get bitten by one of those?” he asked, walking towards the glass and leaning down to glare at the animal.

“Yes, I’m sure it’s very painful. Come on, we’re supposed to be looking at the cats.”

“You sure you don’t want a dog instead?” Ash flashed him a shit eating grin, still standing in front of the rottweiler that was now panting happily.

Eiji looked between him and the door with a cartoon picture of a cat at the end of the hall. “I don’t think our building allows dogs.”

Letting out a burst of a laugh, he finally walked over to where Eiji waited and threw an arm around his shoulders. “You’re living with  _ me _ and you’re still concerned about building rules?”

“Mrs Scholl is very nice, I don’t want to make her angry,” he said simply, referring to their building manager. “She was saying just yesterday and she should invite us over to dinner with her family some time.”

“...I don’t think I like how chummy you’ve gotten with her.”

“If we go, you’re not allowed to cook whatever we bring over for her. You never flavour things properly.”

“I flavour things just fine!” 

Rolling his eyes, Eiji pushed open the door that lead to the cats. “And here we are!” A collection of smaller windowed rooms bordered the long hallway, some full of cages while others were open, filled with plush pet beds and cat trees. And, of course, cats. So many cats. Eiji pushed up his sleeves, expression full of determination. “Which room should we start with?”

“Uhh… how about that one?” Ash indicated one of the more open rooms further down the hall. A mother and child were in the one closer, the child picking up one of the younger cats in a way that looked slightly painful. Best to avoid that one, for now.

Careful to avoid letting any of the animals out, the two entered the small room and Ash watched as Eiji immediately made a beeline for a very fluffy black cat lounging in the back corner. Smiling, Ash resigned himself to petting a lazy looking tabby that was asleep at the top of one of the cat trees, leaning against the wall as he watched Eiji fawn over the various felines.

Ten minutes later, both boys were sitting on the floor, leaning against each other with Eiji resting his head on Ash’s shoulder as the latter flicked a toy back and forth for a kitten that rolled and tumbled in front of them. “What do you think?” Ash asked quietly.

Eiji hummed. “I don’t think we should go with any of these. None of them are really jumping out as ‘the one,’ y’know?”

Ash nodded, still watching the kitten, only to look up in surprise a moment later as the door opened. “Sorry to disturb you boys,” an older woman with smile lines said as she walked in, using a foot to push aside a few cats that attempted escape. “It’s these two’s turn to play in here too.” With that, she set down two young cats she held in her arms before moving around the room, straightening up things as she went. 

Paying her little heed, Ash returned to flicking the toy for the kitten, but Eiji’s head lifted from his shoulder and soon he could see him crawling across the hard floor towards the two new contenders. 

“Ash,” he said with something like excitement in his voice. “Ash, Ash, Ash.” 

Clicking his tongue, Ash looked at where he was crouched on his hands and knees. “What?”

“ _ Look at them. _ ” 

Rolling his eyes, Ash stood and crossed the short distance before kneeling down once more. 

The two new cats were juveniles, probably around a year or two each. The first, a battered looking orange tabby who was missing an eye, sat patiently as it watched the other one, small and black, pat back and forth at the its tail. As he watched, the black one managed to catch it, biting down on it only to receive a half-hearted swat to the head in response. 

“Which one do you want?” he asked Eiji, already suspecting the answer.

“Both of them.”

“Eiji,” he said, as patiently as if he were talking to an overeager child, “we came here to get one.”

“But  _ look at them _ . And what’s the difference between one and two?”

“Do I have to teach basic math to you now?”

“Oh, are you interested in those two?” Ash looked up at the sound of the woman’s voice, seeing her approaching from whatever she had been doing before. “I’m afraid your friend has the advantage here, son. Those two are better adopted together.”

Eiji looked up from where he had been using his finger to distract the black kitten away from biting his companion again. “Really? Why?”

“Chester here has had a bit of a rough kittenhood, I’m afraid. He was found left for dead in an alleyway. Star was in the same cage with him when he was recovering and you could say they ended up bonding. Chester becomes completely terrified and aggressive if they’re separated.”

“Hmmm,” Eiji hummed, glancing sideways at Ash. “Sounds like someone else I know.”

Ash narrowed his eyes in warning. “Bite me.”

“Star on the other hand just  _ howls _ if he’s not with Chester. We think he’s probably worried about him, he just meows and meows.”

“Now  _ that  _ sounds familiar,” Ash jabbed back, only to met with disappointment when Eiji didn’t deny it. 

“Please, Ash?” he said instead. “Can’t we get both?”

“Two cats really isn’t that different from one,” the woman added. “The only real change is how often you have to clean their litter.”

“Oh, not you too.”

Eiji reached forward, picking up one in each hand and lifted them towards his face. “Pleeeeease?” he said again, this time with the added effect of having two kittens also staring at him with those big round eyes of theirs. 

Ash glared at him, long and hard, before finally conceding. “ _ Fine. _ But we’re changing their names.”

“Yes! You hear that, little guys!? You’re coming home with us!” Eiji announced, raising both above his head like some weird variant of cheerleading pompoms. 

“Great! I can help the two of you get the paperwork done,” the woman said, looking at them with such glee on her face it made Ash feel almost sick. “Do you want to follow me back to the reception desk and we can go through all that?” 

Eiji looked between Ash and the woman. “Why don’t just I go for now and you can get better acquainted?” he said to him. “We can come back for you after the legal stuff is out of the way.” 

Ash nodded. He was no longer a wanted criminal, but if the question of his name came up, well,  there were still some people who remembered him from news bulletins.

Left alone in the room, he picked up the orange cat and raised it so they were face to face. Turning it in his hands, he looked at the missing eye, the space where the rest of his ear should be, the lines along his body where scars had stopped hair from regrowing. “I’m not that much like you, am I?” Was that how people saw him? Broken and afraid?

He had already been nervous about getting a pet in the first place. His life had never felt permanent until only recently. It had never felt like he existed enough that he  _ could _ be responsible for another life, and now he was going to be so for two. Three, if he counted Eiji, though in many ways Eiji was more responsible for his. He couldn’t count the nights that he had lain awake, staring at Eiji’s back and wondering what would have happened to him if they had never met. He had always come to the conclusion that he would probably he dead.

A tiny mewl came from below and he looked down to see the black kitten had perched itself on its hind legs, front paws patting at his own leg so lightly Ash had barely felt it. It looked up at him, eyes imploring. No, not at him. At the kitten in his hands. “Sorry, sorry,” he said, putting the tabby back down. “I didn’t mean to take your friend away from you.” The black cat immediately went to the tabby once it was back on the ground, licking its head a few times as if to comfort it. 

Lips pulling upwards slightly by something that wasn’t fully happiness, Ash knelt down again, running his hands along the black kitten’s back. “Stay with him, okay buddy?”

A few minutes later, the door opened again and Eiji reappeared, a cardboard cat carrier in each hand. “Paperwork is done!” he announced. “Time to take our new friends home!”

Ash looked at him, eyeing the carriers. “I think we’ll only need one of those.” The smile all but fell from Eiji’s lips before he clarified, “I don’t want to scare them by making them think they’re not going together. The boxes are big enough, they should both fit in one.”

His smile relighting, Eiji took a few quick steps to bridge the gap between them, grasping Ash’s hand in his own and leaning in to give him a quick peck. “Thank you for this,” he said quietly.

Ash felt his own eyes crinkle with a smile, returning the kiss on Eiji’s forehead. “I should be the one thanking you.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm attempting to write 1k words a day this month, this being day 2, so if you wanna watch me crash and burn with that you can find me on Twitter or Tumblr as bizarrequazar


End file.
